A hair dryer is a kind of beauty care tool, which is intended to blow cooling air or hot air over wet hair so as to dry the hair or to create a hairstyle as desired.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a general hair dryer. Referring to FIG. 1, the general hair dryer 10 is mainly composed of a casing 12, a blowing fan 16, an outlet 18, a handle 20, a switch 22, and a power supply cord 24.
The blowing fan 16 is rotated by a driving motor, and the body 12 has therein a heater coil that generates heat by supplied power and a safety means that prevents the heater coil from overheating. The general hair dryer is operated based on the following operational principle: outside air is drawn into the casing 12 by means of the blowing fan 16, and then is heated while passing through the heater coil, and finally the heated air is discharged through the outlet 18. A user may dry or style his or her hair using the hot air that is discharged according to the above-mentioned principle.
On one hand, if the hair is exposed to the hot air for a lengthy period of time when the hair is dried or styled via the hair dryer 10, it causes the hair to be excessively dried, thus leading to split ends or damage to the hair. Hence, it is necessary to alternately use hot air and cooling air or unheated air.
Further, in the case where a hairdresser uses the hair dryer 10 for a lengthy period of time, the handle 20 mounted to a lower portion of the hair dryer as well as a portion of the casing 12 between the outlet 18 and the blowing fan 16 serves as a handle. However, when the portion of the casing 12 is held by the hand to be used, it is very inconvenient to control the switch 22 while adjusting air blowing due to the position of the switch 22.
Therefore, there is a need for developing a hair dryer, which is capable of efficiently discharging alternately the cooling air or the unheated air along with the hot air, and which allows a user to easily adjust the air blowing over a prolonged period of time.
As the technology relating to the hair dryer, Korean Patent No. 10-0474007, which is entitled a hair dryer using heated fluid as a heat source, is disclosed. According to the cited document, the hair dryer uses heated fluid as the heat source for heating the hair.